In a traditional transportation vehicle flooring system, a barrier/fiber or barrier/foam layer is utilized beneath a floor with added expanded polypropylene (EPP) or expanded polystyrene (EPS) foam blocks to fill the packaging space under the floor system and to add stiffness. EPP and EPS are close cell foams and as such do not function well acoustically. The original equipment manufacturer also has to install the foam blocks separately from the rest of the floor system, adding to the complexity and time of the installation process.
It would therefore be desirable to provide a lower mass, single piece solution that fills the entire packaging space (up to 100 mm), meets the compression resistance requirements and also meets the acoustic requirements (sound absorption and sound transmission loss) of a transportation vehicle flooring system. It would be further desirable to provide a flooring system that resists molding, is odor-free, non-toxic, non-resinated, and physically resistant to breaking (will not break down under repetitive handing and loading). There is also a further desire that the flooring system simplifies the installation process.
Accordingly, the present teachings provide for e flooring system that overcomes the aforementioned problems and meals the needs stated herein through the use of a vertically lapped fiber of a high thickness (thickness greater than traditional shoddy and cross-lapping operations) as a layer within a flooring assembly.